Thursday, October 4, 2012

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Islamabad yesterday in an apparent effort to smooth feathers ruffled in Pakistan by Putin's last minute cancellation of his own scheduled visit.

Confusion surrounds the Kremlin's hopes of establishing a tighter relationship with Pakistan, in advance of NATO's planned 2014 withdrawal from Afghanistan, after President Vladimir Putin abruptly cancelled a visit to Islamabad planned for this week.

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It would have been the first visit to Pakistan by any Soviet or Russian head of state, and a strong signal that something might be changing in the foreign policy calculus of a country that has always strictly regarded India as its No. 1 regional partner.Read more: CS Monitor